Gradual

GTM Strategy, Advisor to CEO

“Jill’s unmatched expertise in sales, community building, partnerships, and ecosystems has been pivotal in shaping our product vision and go-to-market strategy. Her unique insights and strategic connections have unlocked new opportunities and accelerated our growth.” – Jerry Li, CEO & Founder

Gradual is a community platform that centralizes all community experiences, driving product adoption and deeper customer relationships.

Strategic Advisor

Stage 2 Capital

Stage 2 Capital invests in early-stage B2B software companies and sits shoulder-to-shoulder with leadership teams to operationalize sustainable revenue growth. We provide expertise and capital to help companies scale. 

Our LP base of 500+ seasoned GTM executives is matched with the strategic and operational needs of our portfolio companies. We involve our network in 100% of our investments, which often includes joining a portfolio company as an executive, board member, or advisor.

In 2018, I helped raise our $15 million Fund I from LPs at Asana, Atlassian, Box, Gong, HubSpot, Okta, Slack, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, Toast, Twilio, Workday, Snowflake, Zoom, and many others.

$15m Fund I, LP, and Associate Member
$80m Fund II, LP
$150m Fund III, LP

GTM Advisor & LP

Klue

GTM Advisor

Competitive Enablement platform that combines market, competitor, and buyer insights.

Raised $81 million from top VCs including Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Global, Craft, and OMERS Ventures.

Advisor

Folloze

Advisor to the CEO

Enterprise customers include Adobe, Autodesk, DocuSign, Okta, VMware, UiPath, Cisco, and ServiceNow. 

Integration partners feature 6Sense, Demandbase, Marketo, Outreach, Qualified, and Salesforce.

nearbound.com

Assisted in the design, launch, and growth of the Nearbound category at Reveal. In June 2024, Reveal merged with Crossbeam, with the unified focus now on driving Ecosystem-Led Growth.

While outbound interrupts and inbound attracts, nearbound surrounds.

Nearbound is essential because buyer behavior has shifted from the ‘How’ economy to the ‘Who’ economy. Buyers now ask, ‘Who can help me solve X?’ and seek out trusted nodes in their network.

Strategy & Champion

Guild

Advisor to the B2B GTM team.

On a mission to unlock opportunity for America’s workforce. When opportunity is as evenly distributed as talent, everyone benefits. Individuals rise, companies grow, and our economy thrives.

In June 2022, Guild raised a $175 million Series F funding round at a $4.4 billion valuation. The round was led by prominent investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Cowboy Ventures, Emerson Collective, General Catalyst, GSV, ICONIQ, Redpoint, Workday Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Oprah Winfrey.

GTM Advisor

LoopVOC

Voice of the Customer software for B2B SaaS Companies. Advisor to CEO & Founder.

Affinio

Member Board of Directors

Sales for Life

Advisor & Partner

Nudge.ai

Acquired by Affinity, a relationship intelligence platform.

Advisory Board Member & Investor

23 years in B2B SaaS Go-To-Market at Salesforce, Eloqua, HubSpot, Marketo. Customer Obsessed. Partner Obsessed. Living-In-Market. LinkedIn Member #320,966

Majored in Customer. Minored in Go-To-Market. Live in-Market. 

24 years in B2B SaaS. Early employee at Salesforce (first 100), Eloqua (#13), HubSpot Advisor (2014-2016), Marketo (2018).

Love startups, especially category creators.

Born Sales. Bred Marketing. Building Partnerships. 

I spent six years in management consulting, 52 quarters in software sales at Salesforce and Eloqua, six years doing professional speaking, 2018 reporting to the CEO of Marketo (acquired by Adobe for $4.75B), Limited Partner "LP" and GTM Advisor at Stage 2 Capital and GTM Fund. 

I started investing in 2012 and maintain my personal portfolio of investments in sales and marketing technology startups. I also started advising startups in 2012 and joined my first Board of Directors in 2016. Four of the companies I've advised have had successful exits -- HubSpot, Accompany, DataRPM, and PartnerHacker. 

My work keeps me focused on the changing B2B buying environment and what revenue teams need to do to evolve their culture, skills, processes, data, and technology. 

****If you want to connect with me on LinkedIn, don't send a generic invite.****

Jill Rowley

Helping SaaS build trusted content with third-party expertise • Co-Founder @ AudienceLed • GTM & Partnerships Operator • Your buyer trusts 👉 People, brands, and places they already transact with. Activate them.

I help SaaS revenue teams integrate third party expertise (the people, brands, and places) that influence their buyer to surround them (instead of spam them)  👉 where buyers already transact and spend their dwindling attention credits 👇

Buyers don’t believe brands as much as they believe the people, companies, & places they already work with and listen to.

That’s why your sales and marketing team need a network of trusted people in your ecosystem.

When you activate that network, you get:
👉Warmer doors opening faster
👉Higher win rates
👉Deals that close sooner
👉Bigger deal sizes

Proof I’ve lived this:
✅Built enablement programs that boosted partner retention by 70%
✅Created a partner motion that matched sales revenue with 1/3 of the headcount
✅Outperformed a full SDR + AE team using ecosystem plays
✅Scaled a business to $1M in less than 12 months → acquired

(And yes - I’m in the room developing relationships with the influential people your buyers already listen to.)

Activate an ecosystem-oriented modern go-to-market system that focuses on QUALITY and CONVERSION by:
1) Following me here for weekly systems sharing
2) Or DM me if you want me to show you how to:
- Map who your buyers already trust
- Layer partners into your GTM to build pipeline with less spend (without building any new systems)

Oh, I'm also writing a book on rewiring your mindset, which incorporates psychological, sociological, and philosophical concepts. Go-to-market with your market at www.audienceled.com

Will Taylor

📣Network! We need your support 📣. One of my closest friends woke up to difficult news about her mom. On October 26, Nelda called an ambulance due to severe stomach pain. A CT scan revealed a large tumour on her ovary, a smaller one on her pancreas, and a spread of cancer cells throughout her abdomen. After weeks of testing, praying, and waiting, she received the devastating diagnosis of Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer.

Nelda is a fighter at heart and she is facing this with strength and courage. Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease that often shows no symptoms in its early stages, and by the time it’s detected, it has usually spread rapidly. Regardless of the treatment plan, pancreatic cancer often comes with a challenging prognosis.

During treatment, Nelda will be unable to fully tend to and care for Madison, her daughter with Down Syndrome. The current support options for adults with Down Syndrome are limited, with independent living waitlists that span more than twenty years. This has created a need for immediate and ongoing support for Madison while her mom focuses on treatment.

Nelda’s family is doing everything they can and would never want to ask for much from anyone, but the circumstances and logistics are complex and overwhelming. Many people have asked how they can help, so this GoFundMe has been created to offer support during a time when it is truly needed.

All funds raised will support Nelda through treatment and help provide care, stability, and future planning for Madison. I am Nelda’s niece, Brianna, and my goal is to help lift some of the weight off their family as they navigate this painful and uncertain time. Thank you for sharing, praying, and supporting them in this difficult chapter.

https://lnkd.in/gWds3qq6

We are almost at the goal. Help us get over the line.

LinkedIn probably won't like the link in this post, but it's important. Please if you read this share, comment, like, or at least send the gofundme link to someone you believe can help.

My grandma on my dad's side has beat cancer once (and another time very soon)! It is possible with the right treatment, support, and attitude.

My grandpa on my mom's side passed due to cancer in 2001.

I don't know much about it, but when my friend shared it's stage 4 pancreatic cancer... my heart dropped.

If you have anything to give, your support means the world.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends ❤️ 

And thank YOU for anything you can do.

Helping SaaS build trusted content with third-party expertise • Co-Founder @ Audienced • GTM & Partnerships Operator • Your buyer trusts 👉 People, brands, and places they already transact with. Activate them.

Open article: Donate to Help Nelda Meinen fight Pancreatic Cancer & support Madison, organized by Brianna Kampman by gofund.me

Donate to Help Nelda Meinen fight Pancreatic Cancer & support Madison, organized by Brianna Kampman

(8/30) The entire process of working with external voices. Step-by-step to execute effective relationship management. A no B.S. tactical content series:

1) Sourcing
Find the right people, brands, & places to work with.

- Leverage custom GPT with ICP context & organizing the information into a table (to copy & paste into a sheet)
- Find complementary brands, their existing partners, who is mentioned online, scrape their websites, & return back the data
- Enrich with a lookalike to capture the entire TAM of the ecosystem
- Enrich further with the specific people at each entity (tech, agency, podcast host, media company, etc)
- Validate by message-fit. Do they talk about/serve the same people? Find out through customer stories, trends they talk about, listed logos, & generally where THEY are showing up (sponsorships, events, etc.)
- Reach out to them with a gift first (invite them into the content campaign)
- Messaging should be custom to each category, deployed multi-modal (LinkedIn + email to start)
- Ensure the list is regularly hit in a multi-step cadence. Rotate them into other mediums if unsuccessful.
- Record an interview for most robust content that you can guide/control to fit your narrative.

2) Production
Take the context from the recording & create everything you can.

- Set the initial strategy to direct towards a common goal, & one that empowers your company.
- Ensure there is a "story" being captured, but ask for the information in multiple ways.
- Frameworks. Methodologies. Step by steps. Workflows. Anecdotes. Stories about outcomes. What's the one-two-punch?
- Analyze & find the best moments. Turn those into snippets. Enrich the snippets with more research, back with your data + industry data. Create the content.
- Make this a content factory line. Each step leads to the next. A person owns each part of the process. Make it easy & efficient.

3) Delivery
Deploy the content that's created & amplify. Fully integrated approach.

- Get approvals first from the third party. Ask for necessary consents.
- Make it so easy they can copy & paste. Tell them what, when, & where to distribute. Leave little room for thinking. If they want to give you feedback they will.
- Ensure there is a content calendar internally. How is it distributed on web, social, ABM/nurture campaigns, etc. What about ad dollars? What about your sponsorships - can they promote it too?
- Re-integrate the content over & over: Once you have enough, create a round-up of the expertise. Dedicate a newsletter. Re-feature them on an event or podcast.
- - - - - - - - -
This is a series dedicated to helping marketing & partnerships teams execute with excellence. No gimmicks. No fancy hooks. 

I’m Will, passionate about making markets move together & producing results. I’m the Co-Founder of AudienceLed, a demand gen marketing agency producing pipeline with existing spheres of influence & third-party expertise.

Please criticize this content or ask me questions. I’m here to help.

(10/30) Our exact templates to motivate action. Partners act when the path to success is clear. Make it simple. A no B.S. tactical content series:

For outreach:
*We do outreach on LinkedIn (and soon email)

Connect request:
Hi NAME, we're working with a client to feature experts like you on a content series highlighting the best minds in INDUSTRY. You're someone we should highlight, can I share more info?

👉 Why it works:
- Approaches them with a gift: "be featured"
- Specifies them as an expert
- Simple yes/no ask

Follow-up to a very often "yes":
It's with CLIENT (our client) and the process is simple: one 30 minute recording session and that's it. After that, we produce a blog post, short + medium form video, social posts, and more that they will promote. We also enable you to promote.

Mind if I email you more details and the prompts for the series?

👉 Why it works:
- Answering questions upfront (high level, client, etc.)
- Positions time in vs outputs as compelling
- Time / ask is clear and not extensive

Email to send more info:
Subject: Featuring you in CLIENT's content series

Hey NAME - We’re excited to include you in the thought leadership series with CLIENT. Here’s more info:

This is NOT promotional for the tool
This IS focused on story, workflow, and narrative-driven content
The process is simple: a 30 minute recorded call that we prepare you for (that's it!)
Our team edits and ships you assets to approve, as well as enablement to make it easy for you to share to your audience
CLIENT will promote to their audience via newsletter, blog, ads, social, and more

Here are the prompts for the series: GDOCLINK

Would you like to be featured? If so, grab a time here to record: CALENDLYLINK

*We also send a follow-up on LinkedIn the email it came from and asking a question of: "Did you receive it?"

👉 Why it works:
- Prompts them to respond that they received it
- Gathers their email but also organizes the info better in that email
- Allows for cleaner linking, another place for follow-up, and can answer more questions ahead of time

For delivering content:
Subject: Your CLIENT content is ready! 

Hi NAME - Thanks again for recording content with us! Your content is ready for posting 🎉

Content 1: ASSETLINK
Post copy you can use/edit as you wish: LINKENABLEMENTDOC
👉 Date to post: DATE

Just a few yes/no questions for you:
Any necessary edits on the content?
Do either of the above dates work for you to post on your LinkedIn?
Is it okay for CLIENT to put thought leader ads to your post?

Let me know if there are any questions. Looking forward to getting this content out with you!

👉 Why it works:
- Clear linking to assets
- Recommending a date to share
- Giving them something they can copy and paste
- Because it's their words (literally in the recording) they are more comfortable sharing, we simply packaged and made them look good in the content!

*After they confirm (or request edits, which we fulfill!), we send an invite as a reminder.

(9/30) "How do you make them take action?" The most common question around working with influencers & partners. It's simple. A tactical content series:

Make it so easy they would be foolish not to take action.

Here's how we execute "Delivery" in our 3-part process.

1) Do the work for them

Seriously. Why would anyone act on behalf of you? Maybe if you pay them, but even then the output won't ever satisfy what you want to accomplish.

Pre-write the message. Write the copy of the content for them. Show up with GIFTS on a SILVER PLATTER.

Literally received an email today from a third-party we work with saying:
"I would just love to say we really appreciate how thoughtful and communicative you all are. We've worked with plenty of partners and it's just such a breath of fresh air to have everything be so streamlined for us!"

The bar is low. But treating people well and making it easy is table stakes. Period!

AND IT MOVES THE NEEDLE.

People WILL copy and paste what you write for them. If they don't they will make minor changes as needed. But if it's in their voice and uses their words... it's hard for them to say no to hit "send" or "post".

Here's how: 
- Capture their words (through existing content, or a recorded call)
- Align their words to their (and your) joint-narrative
- Find the best moments and turn that into content
- Make it multi-modal. Video clip + blog post + social post + email message + Slack message + etc.

Then you will overwhelm them with value.

2) Make it clear who does what & when.

You can't just throw things at people. It needs to be organized. It needs to be direct. This comes with proper project management.

Give a specific date and time. Tell them who is doing it. @ mention them, CC them in, address them directly on a call.

If you do this with #1... they know when they need to do the copy + paste. 

Clarity drives action.

Read that again! Clarity drives action!

And if that action is a < 2 minute task... it will inevitably be completed.

Also, this reflects on your ability to HELP them execute. If you are the one helping them achieve their goals, they will prioritize you.

Here's how:
- Give them one place to go (a doc, a Notion page, a tool/collaboration space)
- Give them a date and time of execution
- Tell them who should be doing the task (directly)
- Direct them to the one place to go
- Clarify the actions with a summarized CTA
- Send them a calendar invite for when they need to execute
- Reiterate what happens when they do it (the outcomes they care about)

Your professionalism will impress them.

------
This is a series dedicated to helping marketing & partnerships teams execute w/ excellence. No gimmicks. No fancy hooks. 

I’m Will, passionate about making markets move together & producing results. I’m the Co-Founder of AudienceLed, a demand gen marketing agency producing pipeline with existing spheres of influence & third-party expertise.

Please criticize this content or ask me questions. I’m here to help.

(7/30) The impact 3rd-party validation. Data, stories, & outcomes from working w/ people outside your company. A no B.S. tactical content series:

Last iteration I wrote about getting 5,000+ people to an event. Previously, we closed a $30,000 deal from content exposure from a third-party expert (attributed with organic mention).

These don't happen at the same scale, velocity, or conversion rate that direct provides. Here's why:

1) More distribution (less beholden to algorithms + limited owned channels)
- Open more channels to reach more of the TAM (attention-wise)
- You can even double-post back on your channel to re-use the content again

2) More trust (& less bias)
- Your marketer talking about what you do? Inherently biased. Likely not an industry expert.
- Another person outside of your company? Less biased. Likely more deep industry knowledge (including niche information)

3) Better brand (by association & the feel-good of making others famous)
- Everyone can promote their own thing. You can shout on the side of a street but not everyone will listen.
- If your brand becomes a platform for others to build off of... be it in their own revenue generation (or even just share of voice)... the more loyalty you'll build.

Who do you bring in? 
- In (5/30) I wrote about how to classify, research, organize, & incentivize third-party expertise.
- The people, brands, and places your buyer already trusts. That's your customers, the buyers themselves, complementary brands, formal partners, & more.

How you can think about this:
- Who do you trust more? The faceless brand? Or the influencer?
- When was the last time you purchased something just because a new product/brand was forced in front of you via an ad, search result, etc.
- Do you instead, go to your peers, influencers, reddit, etc. to make sense of a purchasing decision?
- Think... buying a car, choosing an accountant, etc. you need to FEEL trust. 

The outcomes (comment / DM for sources!):
- 2x higher conversion rates & faster deal cycles in partner-influenced deals
- In one example, Partner-influenced deals close 28 days faster than non-partnered deals.
- SDRs focusing on partner-led events find leads to be more responsive and higher-converting.
- Ecosystem-qualified leads from partnered content were ~100x more likely to close than cold ones in another example. 100x. That's 10,000% in percentage terms!

A co-branded ad campaign with 3+ partners drove:
- 971% more impressions
- 368% more engagement
- 1,806% more link clicks
- 314% audience growth

----
Today's inspired by Kyle Lacy!

This is a series dedicated to helping marketing & partnerships teams execute with excellence. No gimmicks. No fancy hooks. 

I’m Will, passionate about making markets move together & producing results. I’m the Co-Founder of AudienceLed, a demand gen marketing agency producing pipeline with existing spheres of influence & third-party expertise.

Please criticize this content or ask me questions. I’m here to help.

Helping marketers ⬆️ conversion rates w/ ⬆️ distribution & high-trust content • CPO @ AudienceLed • Run better demand gen with those your buyer already trusts: The people, brands, and places that have their attention.

(11/30) Data points to help you rethink marketing. How marketing with others > marketing alone. Every time. A no B.S. tactical content series:

2x reach. 50% of the work (if you're efficient).

-Deals with partners attached see an 11.7% higher win rate.

-Influencer marketing returns up to $5.78 for every $1 spent.

-Partner-sourced deals come in 32% larger with a 2.8x higher win rate.

-Co-marketing campaigns can drive up to 40% higher ROI than going solo.

-63% of consumers trust influencer recommendations more than brand ads.

-In mid-market and enterprise SaaS, 35% of new pipeline is partner-influenced.

-As SaaS vendors scale, partner-led revenue often grows to 40–80% of total revenue.

-80% of brands reserve budget for influencer collaborations; 89% plan to increase it.

-Companies investing in ecosystem-led growth are 24% more likely to hit revenue targets.

-One-third of Gen Z has bought something because an influencer recommended it.

-Influencer-driven social helped make social media the world’s largest ad channel at $266.9B in 2025.

-AWS Marketplace sellers see 4–5x larger deal sizes and 133%+ growth in private offers with ~40% net-new business.

I've been sharing how you can see similar benefits, tactically, in previous iterations.

I can't quite seem to understand why anyone would do solo marketing ever again? I'm biased, so what are blockers/hesitations?

----------
This is a series dedicated to helping marketing & partnerships teams execute w/ excellence. No gimmicks. No fancy hooks. 

I’m Will, passionate about making markets move together & producing results. I’m the Co-Founder of AudienceLed, a demand gen marketing agency producing pipeline with existing spheres of influence & third-party expertise.

Please criticize this content or ask me questions. I’m here to help.

Which should you use? What about enrichment? Who do you need to engage to activate efficiently? These experts will help you navigate the hottest tech today.

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Will Taylor's LinkedIn Performance

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